


Coping

by poisonivory



Series: Go Vikings! [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-07
Updated: 2013-05-07
Packaged: 2017-12-10 15:37:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/787665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poisonivory/pseuds/poisonivory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce finds the first day of school stressful enough without his classmates barging in on his sanctuary, but Bruce doesn't always get what he wants.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coping

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the Go Vikings! high school AU series. Minor recreational drug use, if that bothers you.

Bruce had never liked the first day of school. Oh, he liked _school_ fine, or at least the classes. But the frantic nature of the first day back from vacation, the jostling shoulders with people he didn't really like, the endless frustration with an administration that had never really known what to do with him - it led to stress. A lot of stress.

Last year that would have been…problematic. This year, he had therapy, which had provided him with coping strategies. And he had Happy Hogan's connection, who had provided him with…another coping strategy.

He wafted the smoke up towards the vent in the ceiling of the janitor's closet and hoped the smell wasn't too obvious from outside. Some snide comments from Justin Hammer in Econ and a shove in the hall by that douchebag Eric Savin had made for a tense morning, but now his shoulders were slowly coming down from around his ears.

Or at least they _were_ , until a knock on the door sent his heart racing again.

"Avon calling!"

Bruce breathed a sigh of relief as Tony opened the door and slipped in. "Nice. Very inconspicuous."

“Yeah, funny thing - ‘inconspicuous’ has never really been a life goal of mine,” Tony said. “Although, hey, I’m exceptional, so I guess I’m managing it without actually trying. Go me.”

“Care to untangle that for me?” Bruce asked. He offered Tony the joint, but Tony waved it away.

“No, no, why would you know? I only arrived in a helicopter this morning, no big D.” Tony slouched sulkily against the door.

“Is _that_ what that noise was?”

“I mean, anyone can do pushups all summer. Not everyone has their pilot’s license at 16. And by ‘not everyone,’ I mean only me.” Tony sniffed. “I can do pushups too, you know. They’re not _hard_. Even Volstagg’s figured them out.”

“Well. I mean, you can do push _up_ , singular,” Bruce said. Tony glared. “What? I’ve seen you in gym class.”

“When, Mr. My-Doctor-Says-Gym-Class-Exacerbates-My-Anxiety?” Tony muttered.

“Okay, what’s with you?” Bruce asked. Tony didn’t usually strike to wound, at least not with him. “Did a pushup run over that robot dog you built? What?”

“Why don’t you ask Steve Rogers?” Tony kicked at a mop, which fell over and hit Bruce on the shoulder.

“Okay, ow. What’s your problem with Steve? He’s a nice guy.” Bruce had had a few classes with Steve, but he mostly knew him from the nurse’s office. She kept their inhalers in the same plastic bin.

“Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure he’s on drugs,” Tony said.

Bruce stared at him. The smoke from his joint wafted up around their noses.

“Okay, yeah, fine, not like that,” Tony said. “I mean steroids. Or, or controlled exposure to radiation, or powdered tiger penis, or _something!_ ” He snapped his fingers. “He’s on something. Something illegal, and I’m gonna find out what it is, and destroy that Golden Boy image he’s got going on.”

“Tony, he doesn’t even download music illegally,” Bruce pointed out. “Although that might just be because no one torrents big band stuff.”

“You’re right, I don’t want to give him any bad boy cred.” Tony stroked his chin, where it looked like he was trying to grow out a goatee again. “Maybe I’ll just blackmail him. Or cut off his supply. Think of the tigers! He _deserves_ to be destroyed.”

“I really don’t think he - ” Bruce tried.

“Destroyed!” Tony declared. He grabbed the joint from Bruce’s hand, took a drag, handed it back to Bruce, pointed at him, and ducked out of the closet.

Bruce sighed. “You know,” he said to no one in particular, “I don’t ask for much. I just want to be left alone to smoke up in my closet without crazy people coming in and babbling at me. Is that so much to ask?”

The vent in the closet ceiling rattled. Bruce looked up, then jumped back as the vent cover clanged open and a petite redhead he’d never seen before climbed out of it.

She dusted off the shoulders of her leather jacket and glanced at him, then appraised the closet. “You disabled the smoke alarm,” she said. “Smart.”

And she walked out the door just as the bell for the next period rang.

Bruce looked at the joint in his hand, then rubbed it out in a hard-to-reach corner of the closet and slipped it into a baggie to be disposed of later. Maybe it wasn’t him and this school really was getting crazier, but either way, he was pretty sure he’d had enough.


End file.
